When Hope Was Freed
by Unoriginality
Summary: Direct sequel to Pandora's Box; Edward makes his way to Aerugo for a new life of crime.
1. It Doesn't Matter

was on my way South to Aerugo when I ran into someone I hadn't seen in years, and hadn't wanted to see again. He was sitting over a campfire, a bowl of what looked like oatmeal in one hand and a book in the other. He was scruffier than I remembered, but it was definitely my father. Those gold eyes were unmistakable.

I debated about just steering clear of him. God only knew what damage he could do about keeping my family away from me. But my loneliness was overwhelming, and I needed one last friendly face before I disappeared from Amestris forever.

"So where the hell have _you_ been?" I demanded as I walked over.

He startled, looking up at me with wide eyes behind glasses that shone opaque in the firelight. "I'm sorry?"

I dropped my suitcase immediately to his right and sat down on it. "You know damn well who I am and what I mean, Father," I snapped. "So don't play dumb with me."

He pinched the bridge of his nose under his glasses. "You're mouthier than I remember," he said. "Although I see you started talking again." He gave me an even stare. "The Fullmetal Alchemist is mute."

"I found an ugly miracle through one of your old friends," I said, looking down at my two perfectly flesh hands.

"Then you met Dante and the homunculii." That wasn't a question, it was a statement, one that sounded vaguely apologetic.

"Your ex-wife and first son," I said. "And whoever else the others were."

"Are they why you sank Central?" he asked. "I wasn't far from Central when the transmutation went off. I'd heard that Dante had gone underground and went to confront her. I'm lucky you got to her first."

I shrugged. "She was a danger to this country, her and her pet homunculii, especially Bradley. I couldn't count on anyone else to help me and not get hurt."

"You're as bad as I am, Edward," my father said, sitting back. "I take it your Stone paid for quite a bit?"

I didn't answer, staring numbly at the fire. "It got Al back," I finally said. "That's all I cared about. Anything I got back for myself was an accident."

"A fortunate accident," my father said. "Now you can communicate without sign, and don't have identifying automail to worry about, so you can disappear and become no one." I looked at him, not saying anything. "You'll have to run far, of course, to avoid getting recognized, with that coat and your eyes. The curse of a unique characteristic."

I looked down at the fire, resting my chin on my knees. "I had no choice. You didn't give me one anymore than anybody else did."

"No, I didn't," Father admitted. "I should've killed that woman and her homunculii long ago. But you know what it's like, to be confronted with the homunculus of someone you loved. Envy hated me. I don't know what your mother's homunculus thought, but Dante had poisoned my son against me. I was too much a coward to approach her while he was around. I didn't have it in me to destroy him."

I couldn't imagine what I would've done if Mom had been turned against me somehow. I couldn't imagine having to put her down as a mistake, a sin I committed. My stomach tied in knots at the idea of her being caught in that transmutation. I could sympathize with him, but he still had left the country to rot under Dante's rule.

Finally, I looked up at him, barely turning my head to do so. "Why'd you leave us? None of this would've happened if you hadn't left."

Father sighed. "Eventually, it would have, even if it had gone differently, Edward. Dante still ruled the country, her homunculii were still out there. I left to try to lead Dante away from your mother and you boys, but obviously, I was too late for that if she got ahold of your mother's homunculus."

"Stop calling her that," I snarled. "She's Mom, not some thing."

Father held up his hands defensively. "All right, all right. I'm very glad she was a mother to you, Edward. You needed one. And your brother will need one now that you've left him behind. Tell me, why would you go through all these years, just to leave him?"

I stared at the fire, firmly screwing my military indifference onto my face even though my heart was still breaking as it had been since I handed Al off to Mustang and ran. "Because of my reputation," I said. "He'll never have a peaceful life as long as I'm around. Besides, both he and Mom are legally dead, if I'm gone, nobody can wonder about them."

"I suppose that's about as good a reason as any," Father said, poking at the fire with a stick before returning to his forgotten oatmeal. "I can't say that I wouldn't have done the same. Did you leave them with someone who can care for them?"

"My former commanding officer," I said. "He's a good man, took care of me, he'll take care of them."

"Well, that should be one burden off your mind, then. Tell me, where are you going next?"

I gave him a suspicious glare. "Why, so you can run off and tattle on me and have my family come chasing after me and drag my dumb ass back home to ruin things?"

"No, merely curious. I could offer some help choosing a place if you had care."

"I figured on heading south to Aerugo," I said. "Dunno what I'll do yet."

"Well, you'll end up stirring up quite a hornet's nest if you do," he said. "I know your reputation, and it's not just Amestris that does. You'll be offered plenty of mercenary work, and I'm sure you'll love to stomp on the human traffiking groups in the process."

That made me turn cold. "Human trafficking."

Father nodded. "Mm. Aerugo is the central hub for all human trafficking problems in our continent. The government can't rouse itself to stop it, so mercenary groups fight over rewards for the decimations of these groups. Be careful if you go there, though, you're still underage and the country specializes in people under eighteen."

That made my mind flush with a violent heat and my blood freeze in my veins, the same old violent fear that had bubbled up in me ever since I killed Tucker five years ago. "I'll be careful," I said, voice held carefully neutral when everything inside of me wanted to break into a million pieces at the idea of what must be being done to these children. Edward Elric carefully hid behind Fullmetal.

I'd like to see them try to capture me. I'd add them all to my Stone. I had no problem with sacrificing ithose/i types.

"Why don't you rest, Edward?" Father said. "There's a town with a train station about ten miles East of here that should take you across the border. You get rest now, you'll be fresh for that walk."

I looked at him for a long time, then shrugged, standing up and kicking my suitcase over onto its side to use it as a makeshift pillow. I curled up under my coat and fell asleep.

Father was gone before I woke up, which hadn't been long at all. I suspected he'd abandoned the camp site to go elsewhere to sleep, leaving me alone on the road. Deciding I'd had enough rest, and not wanting to let my father get a chance to get back to my family before I could disappear into Aerugo's borders, I got up and headed East, looking for this town that Father had mentioned.

I didn't know the town's name, but it was a border down, just South of South City, and it had a route down to Haloa, Aerugo's capitol. I got myself a ticket and boarded the first train out of the station.

Haloa was a big city, in some ways, bigger than Central had been. I couldn't sure if it was area-wise, but its population was crammed in tighter, in taller buildings, with more slums and back alleys than I recalled being in Central.

Stood to reason, a city that specialized in the underground. There was probably more of the city beneath the streets where the real rats hung out.

My first order of business was to find a place to stay that wouldn't cost me... well an arm and a leg, as much as I hate that stupid saying. Well, that wasn't true. My first order of business was to exchange my cens for lancs. I had quite a bit of change jangling in my coin purse after I was done, so maybe I could afford better, but I'd rather not make a high profile of myself just yet.

I was lurking through corners of the backstreets when I nearly tripped over an old beggar. He had dark skin and red eyes. An Ishbalan.

"Please, sir," he begged quietly. "A bit of change for a poor old man?"

I looked at him. If there were Ishbalans in Haloa, maybe there'd be an encampment he lived with. Ishbalans were known for their charity, maybe I could convince them to let me stay in exchange for protection and whatever money I could fund in with any jobs I could pick up. I felt I owed the Ishbalans something after the way I'd decimated them in Central.

"Tell you what, old man," I said, kneeling down by the beggar. "You live with an Ishbalan encampment when you're not here begging?"

He looked warily at me. "I'll not tell you anything to endanger my family," he said with a fierce sense of loyalty in his voice.

I shook my head. "I'm not out to hurt anyone. I want a place to stay. In exchange, I can protect your family, and if I get any of the jobs I'm after, I can buy food, too."

That erased the wariness to a degree, which faded to curiosity. "Who are you, stranger?"

"Edward Elric," I said. "I'm one of Amestris's former state alchemists. I decided cleaning up the human trafficking rings around here was more interesting than terrorizing Isbhal camps in Central at Bradley's orders."

At first, I wasn't sure my half-lie woud work, then the man smiled, revealing missing and yellow teeth. "Come with me," he said, standing up. "We'll take you in. We never turn away a person in need. That is the way of our god, Ishbala."

I sighed in relief. "Are you hungry? I can get you something to eat before we go."

He looked over at me. "You'd do an old heart good if you did," he said, then led me through the back alleys. I would become very familiar with those back ways over time. In fact, after the first year, that whole city became my playground.

We stopped at a food stand, and I paid out to get him a simple plate of whatever the local cuisine was. I never really knew what I was eating at any given time down there, and part of me felt I should be worried, but it was what there was to eat, and it was either that or starve, so I ate.

Once he'd eaten, he led me further outside of the city, until just on its borders, we discovered an encampment in the junkyard. It was similar to other encampments I'd seen like it. Similar or not, it would work for my purposes. "Do you get a lot of harassment?" I asked.

The old man shook his head. "Sometimes men try to take our children, but we had a fellow living with us for awhile that made them too scared to do so anymore. That fellow disappeared to Amestris, though. So it is fortunate we have you."

"I'll do my best," I promised, looking around as people came out of their tents and stopped their garbage diving to look at us. "I have a mean reputation back home, I'm hoping to make it here, too."

"Good, good, that will protect us," the old man said. "Oh, I am Aaron. My manners went absent."

I hadn't even noticed, but I said nothing out of habit as he led me to a specific tent. "Wait here," he said, then went in. I stay silent, looking around at the people who had stopped to watch. If this had been back in Amestris, I probably could've said 'boo' and scared them all silly.

Eventually, a strong-looking old woman stepped out with Aaron in tow. She studied me. "You're Amestrian," she said flatly.

I nodded. "Former State Alchemist. Had better things to do than follow Bradley's orders."

The woman snorted. "A rare specimen, then. Aaron says you'll protect our children?"

I nodded. "I will. I'm planning on helping a lot of kids out in this miserable city."

The woman looked at me, sizing me up. Finally, she made up her mind about me. "Welcome. My name is Miriam, I'm the wise woman of our village here. You are?"

"Edward Elric," I answered. "Former Fullmetal Alchemist."

Miriam looked wary. "I've heard of your reputation, boy. You're not filling me with confidence in you."

I raised an eyebrow. "I've been heard about way down here? Huh. News travels. Relax, I've never killed an inncoent person my life. Scared 'em plenty, but every kill I've made has been someone hurting a child."

She scowled at me for a long moment, then smiled. "Well, that's the kind of reputation I can get behind. Our god is pacifistic, but in an ugly world such as ours, sometimes you have to be a realist. You have shelter with us, Fullmetal."

"Just Ed," I said. "Leave my alchemist name for the human traffickers to fear. If this is where I'm living, it's just Ed to you guys."

Miriam smiled. "Welcome home, then, Ed. Aaron will show you around, get you settled."

And that was pretty much it. She wandered back into her tent, and Aaron showed me to a recently empty tent that I could claim as my own.


	2. Gothic Lolita

The first week I spent largely to myself, touring the camp and getting to know people. More getting to know their faces than anything else. Most tried to engage me in conversation, but I was so far out of practice with conversation that it usually fell flat. But I learned names and faces, and was able to keep track of everyone from a distance.

After that first week, I decided I got bored and headed out to the city, looking for a place of ill-repute that I could establish my own reputation in. I wore my recognizable coat, with the Stone lodged firmly in my pocket.

I got picked up at a bar by a man too well dressed to be frequenting that place naturally. It'd been about a month since I'd arrived in Haloa when this happened. I was sitting at my usual place, watching for people looking for fights, which was most of them. I hadn't been hired as a bouncer, but I acted as one anyway, and got my meals for free as a result.

The man talked to the bartend while I eyed him suspiciously. The rich and comfy had come down to mingle with the ill-reputable, something was up. The bartend motioned to me, then ignored the man. The man looked at me, frowned, turned back to the bartend, was summarily ignored, and then walked over to me.

I looked up at him, not saying a word, just keeping my flat, unreadable mask on. That seemed to upset him some. "Fullmetal Alchemist?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Maybe. Who's asking?"

He seated himself across from me without invitation. "My name is Anthony Morag. My daughter has gone missing. I understand from the Ishbalan woman who works for my family that you went after people who hurt kids when you were in Amestris."

I gave him a heavy lidded stare, as if what he were saying meant nothing to me. "That's right. What makes you think your girl is in trouble?"

"She's five," he said, obviously looking harried as he spoke. "There was a man that approached me a week ago, trying to negotiate terms of purchase for her. Some of the upper classes are wiling to get rid of illegitimate or unwanted children that way, but Jenny is my life. She's all I have left of her mother. I wouldn't sell her, of course, and it made the man very angry. His name is Samuel Greensborough. He specializes in the under thirteen crowd. I don't know how many he has through proper channels or how many were forcibly taken, but I'm certain he has my daughter. Please, get her back for me."

"And the other children?" I asked, looking at him.

He blinked stupidly for a second. "Well, of course, you'd be freeing them too, but- oh, I see what you're saying. Who takes care of them." He scratched the side of his face. "Well, I can't take them all in myself, and orphanages around here are no good. What do you propose I do?"

"Take some of that money you were going to pay me, take some of that money you have too much of and use it to build a shelter with proper guards and teachers and caretakers. You get others to help you, and I'll start sending you kids. I don't like human trafficking, but if the victims have nowhere safe to go after being saved, they're no better off."

Anthony blinked. "You're an Amestrian and you really care about what goes on in this country without being paid for it?"

I shrugged. "Scum is scum in any country. I was fighting a losing battle in Amestris with the military over my head, so I came here."

Anthony looked at me remorsefully. "You'll be fighting a losing battle here, too. It's too pervasive."

"Well, I'll keep busy then, won't I?" I said. "So this Jenny, what's she look like? And which group has her, do you know?"

He shook his head, pulling a picture out of his pocket. "This is her," he said, handing it over. "Greensborough approached me and said he represented a personal client named Murdoch."

"Sounds like high money."

"That's what I'm afraid of," Anthony said. "The government is over its head trying to keep up with all this. Too many corrupt police and the military's useless, tied up with Amestris's southern border."

"That should change soon," I said. "Bradley's no longer ruling."

Anthony raised an eyebrow. "He's not?" I shook my head, and he laughed. "Well, good, good riddance. Maybe the military will be able to come back and help with this mess. In the meantime, I'm begging you to find my Jenny."

I pocketed the picture. "I'll find her," I said.

He blinked. "You're not going to ask me how much I'm paying you?"

I shook my head. "You're not paying me cash. You're setting up a shelter for any other kids I find in the meantime, trying to find her, remember?"

"You were serious about that?"

I pulled the picture out again. "Yes, I am," I said. "And if you're not, ask someone else to find her." I offered over the picture.

He looked longingly at the picture of his daughter, then at me, then pushed the picture back towards me. "It'll be done. Just find her, please."

I put the picture away again. "I'll start looking right away. You go get that shelter built. And be fast, I'm sure there'll be people waiting to get in."

He nodded and stood. "Thank you, Fullmetal." He hurried out, watching around himself paranoidly.

I waited a few minutes before I got up and went to the bar, asking the bartend about a man named Samuel Greensborough or Murdoch. He hadn't heard anything, but he knew some people low on the rung of the business to talk to.

I discovered one thing about that kind of work when I actually got into it. It was really fun for someone with a penchant for violence and a disgust for certain kinds of filth. I never felt bad beating up the pissant little lackies. They helped perpetuate a cycle of abuse that made even my ordeals seem like a walk in the fucking park. Sometimes they're just poor guys making a buck off someone else's misery, sometimes they're genuine scum. Didn't matter to me. I'd just beat my way up their totem pole until I got answers.

My knuckles were pretty sore by the time I found this Greensborough guy. He was the personal aid of Murdoch, who was the head honcho of several underage rings, most of which were twelve and under, either gender you wanted. He had a few rings for teenagers, again, either gender you wanted. But of his ten rings I was able to track down, six of them were for under twelve, and a few went down to six months old.

I decided I didn't like this man.

I had a couple problems with getting to this guy. One, I knew there'd be a trap waiting for me when I went to get my filthy hands on that sonuvabitch. Two, I wasn't sure how to go about freeing all those kids without putting them in serious danger from their handlers, lower on the totem.

I decided to go for the kids, first. They were my priority, after all. I made a call to Anthony before I did anything.

"You got that shelter built?" I asked him.

"Almost. You have my daughter?"

"Almost. I found the kids. I'm about to start letting them go, I need a place to take them. Your daughter's among them, so make sure you have room for everyone else."

"I will. Just please make sure she's safe."

I couldn't promise him that, she had probably already been raped at the very least, and depending on which ring she was in, possibly beaten. The thought made my rational thought try to flee. I swallowed down the rage, internalizing it, keeping up a mask of hard indifference.

"I'll do my best," I promised, then hung up.

I had the location of three of the rings' base of operations. But I needed a plan of attack. I had no automail weapon anymore, my choice of weapon for up close and personal fighting, and I hadn't had a chance to buy more bullets, so my sidearm was low. I needed a weapon.

It was late, so I wandered back to the refugee camp I lived in. Miriam greeted me with a smile. "Have you eaten?" she asked

I shook my head. "Been doing ugly work, turns the stomach."

"Saving those children?" she asked.

"I know where they are, but I need a weapon. My sidearm's not going to be good for long."

"Come in and eat with me. Maybe I can help you."

I didn't see how, but you didn't ignore a request from Miriam in that camp, so I followed her into her tent. She had a weak broth that she dished into a second bowl for me. "Sit," she said. "Now, you are an alchemist, yes?"

I nodded, waiting for her to say grace before eating. That kind of ritual was very important to the Ishbalans, I wasn't going to stomp on their customs when they were being so kind as to take me in.

"Then you have your weapon. Before you came here, for a short while, there was another alchemist, one of our own. A heretic, but a strong alchemist. On his arm was a tattoo, and with that tattoo, he slaughtered anyone who tried to hurt our own. Do you know the man I speak of? He said he had business in Amestris."

Scar. I looked down at the broth. "I know him. The State Alchemist serial killer. He found a State Alchemist he couldn't kill."

The woman eyed me as she took a drink of her broth. "Did he now. Well, then perhaps you can wear his weapon and make better use of it."

That meant a tattoo. Which meant needles. "I don't do tattoos," I said, kinda lamely.

"If you have the array he used, I can mark you," she said. "It's not painless, but it may well save your life."

I would also have a hiding place for the Stone that nobody could touch. If I had that tattoo on my arm, my arm could absorb the Stone and I'd become a lethal force of nature, pretty much. It may be my only shot at helping the children of Haloa.

"Fine," I said, taking a drink of the weak broth. "I'll draw up the array, you put it on my right arm. Just do me a favor."

She raised an eyebrow. "And what favor might that be, Ed?"

"Make me really fucking drunk before you take a needle to me. I might accidentally not run away."

Miriam burst into laughter. "The great Fullmetal is afraid of needles. Well, we all have our fears. When do you wish for this to be done?"

"Tonight, if possible. I need to help those kids."

She nodded. "Then finish eating, we will return to your tent and do this."

Getting the tattoo was painful. She didn't get me drunk, didn't have the alcohol to do it, so I sat still, chewing on the inside of my mouth until I tasted blood. I'd gotten used to it up in Acheron, with all the stitches I had to get, and then my several surgeries over the years with the Rockbells. But god, it still hurt.

The tattoo took forever, it was a huge array on my arm. Once she was done, Miriam cleaned the site, then bandaged it. "I will return in a couple hours to clean it. In the meantime, leave it bandaged," she said. "If you don't, you invite infection."

I nodded, trying to not wince at the pain. That had been a lot of needle pokes and a whole arm still not used to sensation compared to the weathered left arm. If not for the fact that I'm right handed and my right arm had been my weapon for so long, I would've asked for that dumb tattoo on my left side.

I spent the next two hours dozing on my left side. I was tired from a long day, and the crash of endorphines from the tattoo had me drowsy. But, Miriam was true to her word and returned a couple hours later. "Wake up, boy," she said, pushing aside the tent flap.

I opened my eyes reluctantly, glancing at her before sighing and sitting up. "I'm up." I ran my unbandaged arm over my face. "Okay, now what?"

"Now we clean," she said, setting down a bowl of water. She unbandaged my arm, revealing the tattoo outlined in irritated, red skin. She used her hands to clean the skin, draining blood and plasma down into the bowl. "It will be tender for awhile," she said. "But it's done."

I held up my arm, admiring the craftsmanship. She was good with a needle and ink, I could tell that much. It felt weird, having those array lines on my arm. But, I knew it would give me a weapon to replace my missing automail. "Thank you," I said.

She smiled. "Now, you, sleep. Remember to favor your other side, you don't want to hurt yourself."

I nodded, bid her good night, and curled back up on my left side and fell asleep.


	3. Hell Is For Children

I awoke sometime early morning, early enough that the sky was still a pale gray and pink. I stepped out of my tent, enjoying the cool morning air. People were beginning to stir from their tents, gathering at the central tent that held the food.

Stepping back into my tent, I pulled on my coat to ward off the chill, then hesitated, feeling the Stone against my left ribs. I pulled it out, carefully, with my left hand and looked at it. Scar's arm had just absorbed what I'd had from the Fifth Lab. My arm should do the same.

Of course, I also remembered how much pain Scar was clearly in when he did it, so I was wary of trying it myself.

There really wasn't a point in putting it off, though, so I pressed the Stone to my right palm. What I could see of my tattoos under my sleeve lit up a brilliant red as the Stone began to absorb into my hand. It was excruciating, entirely different from automail surgery. I bit my other arm hard to keep from screaming and rousing the entire encampment, tears stinging my eyes as I clenched my teeth down on my left arm. My right arm burned and it felt like my skin was crawling off.

It seemed like forever, but probably within a minute, it was done, and I was left with a dull ache and a burning sensation along every array line on my arm. I was sweating and panting hard from the pain, from the effort to not scream. I flopped back down on my sleeping roll, laying back and letting my right arm adjust to the thrum of power, the burning of all those lives trapped there, until I died, someone transmuted my arm, or I used them all.

Whatever came first.

Finally, my stomach roused me past the pain and I got back up, heading out to the food line. I was extremely grateful for the loss of my automail then, as there really wasn't enough food to feed that kind of metabolism and still have everyone get a fair share.

Miriam came to sit by me as I ate my stew. She looked at me. "You look in pain. It's not the tattoo, is it?"

I shook my head, pushing up my sleeve and showing off the array lines. "Naw, it's fine. I just slept funny on my neck."

She took a bite of her bread, looking at me, then nodded in understanding. "The ground is rough to sleep on. You'll get used to it."

Nothing more was said as we ate, and I bid her goodbye as I returned my bowl and headed off into the city. I had located Samuel Greensborough and through him, Murdoch, it was a matter of getting the kids safe before I bit off the snake's head.

I followed my previous trails to the various dens. I approached as a 'client', or whatever pretty word they were using to describe the sick fucks who fucked children. I felt slimy for it, but it got me in. I requested to see all the merchandise

The children, ten boys and ten girls, all under the age of about twelve, were marched out in front of me, all in their best, boys in little suits and girls in laces and curls. I felt sick to my stomach. Every one of them stunk of fear, terrified out of their little minds. No child should have to go through that.

"Make them close their eyes," I told one of the pimps, playing along like I was interested in purchasing a 'session' with one of the children.

"You heard the client," the pimp snapped at the children. "Close your eyes."

Several whimpered, but all did as they were told. Once their eyes were all closed, I walked towards them, watching the pimp and various other workers, handlers and servants meant to pamper the client while they enjoyed their pick. Twelve in total. A charge of alchemical energy shot out of my right arm into the ground, summoning the rock beneath me and forming spikes that exploded out of the ground and right into the adults. Several children started crying at the noise, some opening their eyes and staring wide-eyed and terrified.

"Stay there, kids," I told them, then walked over to the pimp. He wasn't dead yet, but I could make him wish he were."Where are the client lists?" I demanded.

He stared at me, blood dribbling out of his mouth. He shook his head. I grabbed the side of his head with my right arm, summoning alchemical energy and using my knowledge of the human brain to start changing chemicals and neural pathways, increasing his dopamine levels. He should start hallucinating any time. "You'll die a raving lunatic if you don't tell me where," I snarled at him.

He started to scream, looking around at nothing. "I'll tell you, just make them go away!" he shouted. "They're in the office, in the safe behind the books. Now make them go away!"

I had what I needed out of him, so with a quick twist of my hands, I snapped his neck. I looked over at the children and crouched down to their level. "It's all right, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here to rescue you. There's a place a man is building to take in kids like you to protect them from bad men. I need to get something from the office, but then I'll take you there, okay?"

The children looked at each other, then fearfully at me. I wondered how many times they'd heard "I'm not going to hurt you" right before being raped. I probably should've chosen better wording.

I held my hand out to one. "Trust me?" I asked her. "I'll take you somewhere safe, where people can't hurt you anymore."

The little girl, her brown hair pulled back tightly into twin French braids and dressed in a lacy sun dress looked at her companions, then back at my hand. Finally, she reached forward and took it. "You have to promise," she said in a voice barely louder than a whisper.

I smiled. "I promise, I'll get you out of here," I said. "And I always keep my promises."

She held her other hand out for the boy next to her and the children all formed a chain, holding on desperately to the promise of freedom. The little girl, who introduced herself as Anna, directed me to where the offices were. I tossed books aside, looking for the safe, finally finding it in the corner. I used alchemy to open it up and pulled out the paperwork. I looked over it. Names and numbers and prices. This was more than a client list, it'd take me awhile to get through it.

I tucked the papers under my arm, then used the office phone to call Morag. After getting through a couple secretaries, I finally got ahold of him. "You have that shelter? I got twenty kids incoming. None of them seem to be Jenny, but I'm not done scouring the underbelly, either."

Morag sighed. "It's almost ready. It's not as nice as I'd like, but it's serviceable and has caretakers already working it. Here's the address."

I scribbled down the address, read it back to myself, then destroyed the paper it was on. "I'll be there shortly."

"Please keep looking when you're done there," he said. "The longer she's gone-"

"I know, the longer she's gone, the less chance of finding her alive. Don't worry, I'll find her, and she'll be alive. I'll be at the shelter in about ten minutes. Have your staff waiting for me."

With that, I hung up and grabbed Anna's hand again. "Come on, kids, hold onto each other tight, we're going for a walk to a place where you'll be safe."

We probably looked a little strange, walking the streets of Haloa like a mother duck followed by about twenty ducklings that looked nothing like me. But I didn't much care how we looked, as long as everyone was still with us when we reached the shelter.

A caretaker took us in, took count of the children, and immediately set her staff to giving each child personalized attention. "Get them into some proper clothes," she said. "Something not meant to attract scum. Baths and food for all." Then she looked at me. "You're the Fullmetal Alchemist?"

I nodded.

She folded her arms across her tiny body and started at me over her glasses. Then she smiled. "Thank you. These children are safe now because of you. I wish there were more men in this city like you."

I shrugged awkwardly. "Just look after them. I'll be back with more."

She smiled. "We're ready for you."

I sincerely hoped so.

I knew I couldn't pull off the same trick twice, not with how recognizable my facial scars were, so I started going underground, sneaking in the back way to these whore houses, blasting pimps and workers with alchemical shots of energy that deconstructed them from the inside out, leaving an ugly mess for someone else to clean up. Then I'd collect the children and take them back to the shelter.

Still no sign of Jenny.

I found her in the next ring, scared and traumatized. I carried her while I held the hand of another girl, the children forming the chain that made it easier for me to keep them all with me. I took them to the shelter, and asked to see Mister Morag.

Jenny and I were escorted by one of the employees to Anthony Morag's home. He was in his office and had to be fetched. I put Jenny down. "Feel good to be home?"

She nodded at me, looking around and holding onto my coat in a tight little fist. "Where's my daddy?"

"He's coming," I assured her, then looked around. The house was stunning, one that made Dante's estate in Dublith look tiny. Rich people. Why did they feel the need to make everything grandiose and larger than necessary? Maybe it was just because I'd grown up poor in a house just big enough for us that I eschewed the rich's habit of excess, but it annoyed me all the same.

"Jenny?" I heard Morag's voice.

Jenny let go of my coat and ran forward towards her father who was just coming around the corner from a hall that led to who knew what. "Daddy!" She threw herself into his arms and started crying loudly. I cringed. I hated the sound little kids made when they got upset enough. It hurt my ears.

Morag sunk to his knees, holding his daughter tightly. "Oh, Jenny, my Jenny, are you are okay? You're home now, darling, please don't cry."

I looked down at the ground, scuffing the toe of my left boot against the floor, waiting out their tearful reunion. Morag picked up his daughter, whose crying had given way to quiet weeping, and approached me. "Thank you, Fullmetal."

I shrugged. "You hired me. But you keep your end of the bargain. You keep that shelter up."

He smiled. "I've got others going up, too. I decided it was time to help end this plague. Thank you, Fullmetal. You're welcome in my home anytime you need a place to stay."

"Thank you. I probably won't need it, but thanks. I'll leave you two to your reunion. Have a doctor look at her for disease or abuse. I got more kids to find."

He nodded, looking at Jenny. "My shelters are always there for you, Fullmetal. Thank you again."

I left, leaving him to his daughter, and headed back to my tent in the refugee camp.

I saw the smoke long before I smelled the fire. It was coming from my camp. I poured on the speed hoping to get there in time to help save someone, or put it out, or something.

When I got there, many tents had already burned down, and others were still burning. People were back in the junk that had acted a protective barrier for the camp, some injured, most just terrorized. I looked for Miriam.

I found her among the wounded, badly burned and barely alive. I knew the Stone could heal her, but I had no idea how to use it to do that, not to the extent she needed. "Miriam?"

She forced open a burned eyelid. "They were after you," she croaked hoarsely, crying at every movement of her burned skin.

Something inside me that had already long-since gone cold turned arctic. Drachma's winters were more forgiving than what I felt at that moment. I pressed my right had against her cheek, willing the energy from the Stone to speed up the body's natural healing. She wept as skin was healed and pain went away.

"Fullmetal, never doubt what sort of person you are," she said quietly, closing her eyes briefly before pushing herself up. "We will continue to protect you," she said. "Come, there are other wounded."

"I can't stay here," I told her as I helped with the others. "I won't put you in anymore danger."

"We live our lives as refugees, we can handle a little danger," she said.

I frowned, helping another person, then paused. My suitcase had been in my tent. My suitcase, which not only contained the client list I stole from the first ring, but that precious picture of my brother I'd been carrying around like a heavy burden.

I got up and ran for my tent, which had already been reduced to smoldering ashes. My suitcase was badly burned. I opened it, carefully; it was still hot and I lacked sensation-less automail now. Inside, the client list had curdled, and my clothes would forever smell of smoke but a transmutation would fix that. But my picture was irreplaceable.

It had warped and curdled at the edges, erasing and mangling our faces until nothing was recognizable on it. Despair and anger warred within me as I clenched my teeth, weeping in rage. That was all I'd had of my brother, all I'd ever have, and it'd been destroyed by people who thought it was just fucking fine to sell a child to rape to make a buck.

Using my right arm, I finished burning the picture into ashes, then used alchemy to restore my clothes and suitcase. I restored the papers, although I couldn't get back the information that had been burned off, but enough had been saved that I still had a good number of people to hunt down.

And hunting was exactly what I was going to do.


	4. Sin City

I spent the next several months chasing down the clients on those papers, delivering my special brand of justice, which usually meant using the Stone to deconstruct them from the inside out after punching them around a bit, depending on how long I had to work. Most of them were high profile and had lots of money and bodyguards, so I usually ended up just Stoning the lot of them. My right arm thrummed with vengeance, and I vaguely wondered if it was the tattoo driving me, the way it'd driven Scar, or if circumstance was really what it was that pushed me.

I didn't let myself think about that too much.

I blew through that client list, reducing the number of people who'd pay to rape a child by a significant percentage. I even found a couple rings I'd missed that way, and shut them down, too.

I still hadn't stumbled upon this Samuel Greensborough or the mysterious Mister Murdoch. I was really wanting to find them. Cut off the head, the body dies, in theory. Oh, there'd always be scum willing to take up the mantle, but it was easier to control smaller groups than larger.

After almost a year, the porn rings were slowly shutting down, as clients became more and more scared of what would happen to them if they gave their patronage to the rings. I could go into a seedy bar in the back ways and people would pay attention, would move to get out of my way. And nobody liked it when I approached them.

"I don't know nothing!"

I leaned against the bar next to the guy I'd approached, watching him from underneath my hood. "I think you do, Michael. Where is Greensborough?"

Michael glanced around for help, and the other patrons who'd been watching abruptly had something more interesting to do. He looked at me. "I don't know, I swear."

I ordered a drink, taking it with my right hand and discretely changing the liquor to a potent poison. "Now, come on, Michael, I know you better than that. Where is he?"

He started to sweat. "I don't- he'll kill me if I tell."

"And I'll kill you if you don't," I said. "So either way you die, it's a matter of how badly you wanna suffer first."

He looked ready to cry, looking around desperately for some sort of distraction or exit. I provided him none. He looked back at me. "He's opening a new store on the South end, you can't miss it, it's the old paper mill."

I handed him the drink. "See? That wasn't so hard. Now drink up."

He looked at the drink, then at me, and then took a shaky swallow. I walked out, leaving him gasping for air as his airways swelled up and choked him to death. The patrons of the bar watched in horror, and promptly decided to leave me be as I walked out.

I made my way to the South side, looking for the old paper mill. It was already being done up as a comfortable place of business, although it still stunk heavily of the previous use. I decided to go in the front door and make some people piss themselves in fear. It sounded like fun.

I strode in, and the few men that had been brave enough to continue to fuck children with me around stood up, scrambled for weapons. I sent earthen spikes up their asses for their trouble. Buggering by dirt. Equivalent exchange, I say.

There were several children on leashes at the far end of the room, watching fearfully. "Fullmetal?" one little girl spoke up. "Are you here to save us, too?"

I didn't answer right away, listening for others. "Yes, I am. Do you know who all else is here?"

She shook her head, her curled pigtails bobbing about. "Bad people."

I nodded. "Yeah, lots of bad people in this city." I started undoing her leash, freeing her, then moving to the next child in line. Before I could get to the end, the first girl started screaming. I whirled, bringing up my sidearm. In the doorway was about five men with rifles, and one man in front of them. He was big, bald and wore sunglasses.

He smiled. "Well, well, Fullmetal. We finally meet. Name's Samuel Greensborough, but I have the feeling you already knew that."

I narrowed my eyes, slowly reholstering my weapon. I knew I wouldn't get a shot off before at least one of those bullets hit me. I'd have to rely on my alchemy again. Assuming I could use it before they got a shot off. I wasn't sure.

"You've caught attention, Fullmetal," Greensborough said. "You and Morag. Children's shelters, well guarded, we can't get our stolen property back."

"They're children, not property," I snarled, the marks on my right arm thrumming with hatred. I hated that man with every fiber of my being. I saw red, couldn't think past the desire to knock him on his ass and punch his face until there was nothing recognizable about him.

Greensborough shrugged. "To-may-to, to-mah-to. They were rightfully bought by Mister Murdoch and our clients, which you have reduced to an impressively small number, demand the best we can get. How can we conduct business if you steal our goods?"

I didn't want to hear another word. Alchemical energy shot out and opened up the ground underneath his lackeys. They fired wild shots as they went down, peppering the ceiling. Greensborough flailed forward, trying to avoid falling in to the hole. I wasn't about to let him have it that easy though, so I shut the hole, encasing the other men in a cement tomb. The children behind me screamed.

Greensborough reached into his coat. I didn't give him a chance to draw that weapon, running forward and planting my foot against his face, shoving off backwards against him, causing him to stumble back and me to land a few feet away. The walls shifted to my will, snapping out and grabbing Greensborough's arms and legs and holding him prone.

I walked up to him and slugged him hard across the jaw. "Where's Murdoch?" I demanded.

He spat a tooth. "He's in Amestris, looking for new blood, since you've taken all our goods here."

My blood froze at the same time that my nerves set on fire. "iWhere/i in Amestris?" I demanded.

"I don't know."

I slugged him again, then drew my sidearm and pressed it against the underside of his jaw. "iWhere/i in Amestris?"

"I don't know! And even if I did, I wouldn't betray Mister Murdoch. What he could do to me would make you seem like mercy."

I smiled, unpleasant and thoroughly psychopathic. "If that's what you wanna think."

It was only the presence of children that held me back. I could've tortured that man for hours getting Murdoch's information out of him, just to get him back for every fear, for every pain every child he'd bought and sold had felt. Equivalent exchange.

But I didn't want the kids to see that. Nobody should have to see that. iI/i shouldn't have had to see it. Not without fucking myself up further.

So I pressed my right arm against his belly, transmuting his organs to spew a slow-acting acid. He would die slowly and painfully. That would have to be good enough.

I turned back to the children, finishing unleashing the last few, then leading them to the nearest shelter that Morag had built.

Amestris. Murdoch was in my home country that I'd sacrificed so much to protect. My little brother was there, he was underage and even after a year of rehab, he wouldn't be as strong as he should've been if he'd never been trapped in the Gate in the first place. He was in danger. I felt sick to my stomach.

The problem was, if I left Aerugo to go to Amestris to track Murdoch down, he'd slip back into Aerugo without my knowing, since I had no clue what the guy looked like, and he could have my brother with him and I'd never know. My best course of action was to remain there in Aerugo and wait for Murdoch to get back and free whoever he brought with him.

I just prayed that my brother wasn't among them.


	5. There's A Better Life

Things went quiet for awhile after that. Small time pimps were afraid to do anything, and clients were even more afraid of me than the pimps were. I continued working my way through the underground of Haloa, eliminating criminals and other villainous scum, basically making a nuisance of myself to the criminal element.

It was another month before Murdoch returned and another ring opened up. I found out about it from a 'client' who had stupidly gotten drunk around Fullmetal. He bragged about the little boy he'd gotten, some just ripe fourteen-year-old or something around that age. It was telling of the situation in Haloa that, even with a dangerous vigilante on the loose, clients felt comfortable bragging about their 'good times' while drunk to their eyeballs.

I stabbed him in the throat with my military-issued knife, took a drink of my whiskey, then left the bar to go hunt down this new ring. I was feeling a little relieved; Murdoch had clearly equipped this ring with older children, probably thirteen and up. Al may have technically fallen into that range, but what I'd seen when we got out of the Gate, he hadn't aged, so he should look younger than that. So he was probably safe, at least for now.

I had to find Murdoch and kill him, first, though. Just to be safe.

The ring wasn't hard to locate, not even with poor directions from that drunk in the tavern. It already had been dressed up, a reuse of an old building I'd already cleaned out once. At least in that building, the children were given rooms instead of cages.

I snuck in through a back window into an employee room. I ground spiked the three people that were there when I dropped down through the window. I was on a clock now. If those people were discovered, they'd know I was here and who knew what they might do to the children to stop me.

I ran to the main showing room, where clients would sit around and observe the offered goods and then bid on their selection. Several young boys were there, dressed in small suits. They all looked somewhere between thirteen and fifteen.

I raised my hand and sent out a flash of alchemical energy that deconstructed several clients. Others tried to run, only to find themselves impaled on spikes. I ran over to the boys, counting how many. Nine. Odd, they usually presented in tens. "Is there anyone else with you?" I asked them.

"He's right here, Fullmetal," a woman's voice came from the doorway leading to the back bedrooms. I looked over and froze. I didn't know the woman, but she was dressed up like a powerful, rich businesswoman. It wasn't her I cared about though.

In her grip, hands tied and mouth taped shut, was my brother. He looked older than he'd last been; obviously his body was trying to catch up to his age. He looked at me with a mixture of fear and hope, making noises at me behind his gag.

"I found him in Central, such an interesting place for him," the woman said. "Oh, do forgive me, my manners have slipped. I know you're Edward Elric, but you don't know who I am. I am Debra Murdoch, and it's imy/i businesses that you've been ruining. So I decided to ruin yours. Leave our clients and our businesses alone, and you get your brother back. Ignore me, and your brother will find out what hell is."

I pulled out my side arm, aiming it directly at her heart. She was a strong woman, she hefted my brother up in front of her. I'd have to shoot him to shoot her. "Do it, Fullmetal, I'd love to see you actually harm your brother. But maybe it won't matter to you. You idid/i abandon him to come to our filth pit here in Haloa. Or maybe you'll try some of your alchemy."

She pulled out a .45 and held it against Al's head. "You have one shot, Fullmetal. It'd better be good."

I steeled my gut for the only option that occurred to me in my frazzled mind. I fired my sidearm. The bullet ripped through Al's shoulder and right into Murdoch's heart. She dropped my brother and her weapon, falling to the ground with a wet gurgle.

I holstered my weapon and ran forward to where Al fell. He looked up at me with betrayed eyes. "Stop giving me that look, Al," I snapped, pressing my right arm to the bullet wound. "It was the only thing I could do to save your life. I can heal you, just stop squirming." He held still as I used the Stone to stitch the muscle in his shoulder back together, then the skin, which left a small scar.

Then I pulled off his gag. He looked at me with a wet, fearful face. "You came. Why didn't you come home?"

I didn't answer as I untied his hands. "There's work to do here, Al. There are hundreds of kids in good homes or shelters now because of me. Should I have left it alone?"

"That's not what I mean," he snapped, rubbing his wrists. "Murdoch didn't find me, I went to her. I had to find you, and Father said you were down here making trouble. I knew you'd find me if I came down here."

I stared at him, then promptly slapped him across the face. "You ipurposely came here/i?! You stupid, stupid idiot! You're lucky I got to you when I did, or you could've been raped, or beaten, or worse!"

His head snapped to the side, and he raised a hand to his red cheek, staring at me in horror. Then his face screwed up into a look of rage as he shoved me back off my feet. "I wouldn't have had to if you'd just stayed home with me where you belonged!" he yelled. "Why'd you abandon me? All those years you tried to reunite us, only to run away?!"

"You know damn well why," I snapped, getting up and turning to release the other boys. "You saw Central."

"Yeah, and Scar did that," he said, still clearly very angry with me.

"Is that what Mustang's telling you?" I demanded. "iI/i did that, Al. Not Scar. I used him to do it."

He stared hard at me. "I know that. But everyone else knows it was Scar. That you saved the country by getting rid of him before he could do more damage. There's evidence of Bradley's conspiracies coming to light under the Council of Generals that say you saved us from him, too. Evidence of your so-called crimes like this are coming to light in the papers, too. You're Amestris's hero and you iran away/i."

I glanced at him briefly. "I don't want to be anyone's hero."

"Well, tough," he said. "If you didn't want to be a hero, why are you down here doing this? All these children, you iare/i their hero. And no matter what you did, you'll always be imine/i."

I paused, refusing to look over at him, turning my face upwards against the tears that wanted to form. "I shouldn't be, Al. Not with what I've done."

"And how much of it was to save me?" he said quietly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him walk closer. "How much of it was to save innocent people, like down here. You're a lot of peoples' hero, Brother. Please, come home. We miss you. Mom cries every day, Dad's still scouring the countryside for you, even Aunt Riza misses you and cries for you."

I frowned, looking over at him with wet eyes. "Who? Aunt Riza? Dad?"

He smiled faintly. "The family you gave me. General Mustang and his wife. Dad legally adopted me, since Mom was supposed to be dead and Father was missing somewhere. He'll adopt you too, if you come home. We can be a family. Please, Brother, come home." He had tears on his cheeks by then.

I looked away, looking at the little boy I was unleashing. He smiled at me and nodded. "Go home," he said. "We're safe now."

"Al, if I leave if I don't keep terrorizing people like Murdoch, the rings will just come back and all these children will be in danger again."

"There's rings like this in Amestris, too. You can't save the whole world, Brother. I know you want to, but you can't. Aerugo is safe for now. Amestris needs you back. iI/i need you back. Please."

I looked at Al, wanting to cry. My precious little brother and he'd come so close to being one of these victims, might become a victim again if Amestris wasn't cleaned up. But this place needed me, too.

He stepped over to me and threw his arms around my neck. "Please come home, Brother," he whispered in a sob. "Please, don't leave me alone again."

I admit, I broke. I grabbed him into a tight hug, probably tighter than was healthy for his breathing, taking shuddering breaths as I held onto him, my sanity, my safety, everything I'd worked so hard for. How could I deny him anything? "We have to get these kids to a shelter first," I said.

He nodded. "Okay. We'll do that together, then get your suitcase and go." He pulled his head back to smile at me. "See? It's okay now. We can go home."

I let go of him just enough to stand, then grabbed his hand. "Come on, kids," I told the others. "Let's go to a shelter."

They formed a chain, grabbing onto Al's other hand, and we walked the several blocks to one of Morag's shelters. After making sure the kids were safe there, Al and I headed back to the refugee camp we'd rebuilt- or rather, I had, resurrecting the burned tents with alchemy.

I stopped at Miriam's tent. She looked up at me, then at Al, then back to me. "You've taken to keeping them?" she asked with a dry smirk on her face.

"Just this one," I said. "My brother's come to fetch me home. I wanted to let you know I was leaving."

She nodded. "We'll miss you. Stay safe, Ed."

"You too."

As we walked over to my tent to grab my suitcase, Al looked at me. "Who was she, Brother?"

"The one in charge of this place," I told him. "She let me stay here, despite getting hurt because of it. Hopefully, with me gone, they'll be left alone in the future."

He looked down at the ground. "You really do have a lot of people who rely on you here, don't you?" he asked, sounding forlorn. "Maybe you ishould/i stay here."

I paused, looking at him. "You expect me to stay here without you now that I've seen you?"

He looked up at me. "You're needed."

"I'm needed with you, too, aren't I?" He was wet eyed as he nodded. I pulled him into a tight hug. "Then I'll go with you. Someone like me is needed everywhere and I can't save them all by myself. But I can keep you safe, and the other kids in Central, at least. Haloa can figure itself out now that the military's come home to roost."

He clung tightly, crying. "I thought I'd never see you again," he said wetly.

"Wipe your nose on my coat and you'll regret it," I told him, trying to ease his nerves. "You're seeing me now, aren't you?"

He drew back, sniffing hard, then slugged me on the shoulder. "That's for leaving, you stupid jerk."

I smiled, stepping into my tent and grabbing my suitcase. "Come on, let's go catch the train home."


	6. Who You Are

The trip home was a long one, having to cross a few hundred miles from the capital of Haloa to the border between our countries. With lessened military presence on both sides of the border, crossing was thankfully fairly painless, but it was still another two hundred miles to Central from there.

I watched out the window at the passing scenery while Al slept against me. I sincerely hoped he hadn't been hurt or used by Murdoch before I got to him, but if he had, he wasn't telling me. I put my arm around his shoulders, holding him tightly. He stirred, looked up at me, and his face lit up brightly. "It wasn't a dream," he said quietly.

I smiled at him, faintly, as much as I could. It'd been so long since I'd just smiled that I had forgotten how to in some ways. "No, not a dream." I glanced back out the window. "How do trains get into Central now?" I asked, almost afraid to find out.

"They built a hub station on the South end," he said. "It took them awhile to reroute all the tracks that way, and they're still working on the North end tracks, but it's getting fixed. Nothing happened that can't be fixed, Brother."

I looked at him. But nothing would bring back those lives I sacrificed, but I didn't voice that thought, didn't want to bring him down. "Where are you living right now?"

"We're living down on the South end, near Colonel Hughes. He's Dad's adjutant. Dad's on the Council of Generals. He got the promotion into it because of his work in the aftermath of Central's destruction and because there just weren't many generals left who knew what was going on. One general flat out ignored the call to Central and stayed up in Fort Briggs. But Aunt Riza's grandfather, and Dad, and a few others are running things right now."

"So Mustang really adopted you, huh?"

Al smiled. "He adopted us both, Brother."

I blinked. "I thought you said he _would_ adopt me, not that he had already."

To his credit, Al did look sheepish about that. "Well, technically, the paperwork's already taken care of. We just had to find you first. Mom's going to be so happy to see you. She cries all the time because you're gone." He frowned. "So did we all. You don't seem to understand how important you are to us."

I looked out the window. "It's not that, Al."

"Brother?" When I didn't look at him, Al reached up and put his hand on my far cheek, turning my head to face him. "Why _did_ you leave us?"

I turned my gaze aside. "I knew you and Mom would never escape my reputation and crimes if I stuck around. I wanted you two to have a chance at a real life."

Al moved into my line of sight. "Brother? We need you. We need to be together. That's what we worked for, isn't it? That _is_ my chance at a real life. Just like we promised each other."

I gave him a remorseful look, but had a hard time shedding anymore tears. I pulled him into a hug. "Okay, okay, I'm coming home, aren't I?"

He clung. "You'd better not run away again," he said. "Promise me you won't. I know you keep your promises, so promise me."

I didn't say anything. Not at first. Promising felt like putting on a ball and chain that would keep from not from escaping, but from saving my family a lot of grief and trouble. But he wouldn't let me get away without promising, I knew my brother enough to know that. So I finally sighed. "All right, I promise, I won't leave again."

He snuggled up against my side. "Our house is really big. There's five bedrooms, an office, a den, a dining room, a living room and a kitchen that makes Mom very happy. She's always baking and cooking. But she hasn't baked anything with apples in it since you left, she said. She's saving that for when you come home. So once she's done hitting you with a spoon for leaving in the first place, you can expect a lot of your favorite desserts."

I chuckled. "They're _all_ going to hit me," I said.

"Yeah, except Aunt Riza," he said. "She's a little skittish. Dad says the medicines they had her on before you discovered the problem affected her brain. She's really quiet and easily spooked. So don't surprise her or anything."

That sounded nothing like the Riza I remembered, the strong, unflinching woman who'd been my first and only companion for a month while we traveled around. I sighed. I was the reason she'd been on those drugs in the first place, and they'd ruined her. I was sure Mustang and Riza would try to convince me it wasn't my fault, but I couldn't see how it wasn't.

I'd just have to learn to live with it. It was either that or run away again, and I'd promised my brother I wouldn't. So I was stuck.

We were both asleep when the train came puttering to a stop. The sudden lurch jolted us both and I blinked, looking around. The new Central Station looked a lot like the old one, but rails curled off in different directions instead of straight and narrow tracks going every which way.

"Does Mustang know to expect us?" I asked, grabbing my suitcase.

Al shook his head, taking my free hand. "No, I didn't call ahead."

"He's going to kill us both. Me for running away and you for coming after me."

He grinned. "A killing well-earned."

I rolled my eyes. "Just remember that when he sets fire to your shoes."

Al walked with me, leading me around a rather nice section of town that had escaped the destruction a year ago. God, was it a year ago already? It was still so fresh in my memory, a horrible crime that haunted me every night. With all my other nightmares, that is.

We approached a large house with a wrap-around patio. On it was a swing, and on the swing was Riza, her hair cropped short as it'd been when I first met her so many years ago. She blinked, standing up and staring at us for a moment. Then she practically fled inside.

I frowned, looking at Al. "Is she scared of us?"

He shook his head. "She doesn't know how to handle a lot of things, so she leaves that to Dad and Mom. She probably just went to get them."

Mom came out first, gave a little cry, then ran to us, pulling us both into a hug. Her hair was darker than I remembered, and her eyes were violet like the other homunculii had been. I stood awkwardly as she held us both. Then she let us go and slapped both of us across the face, and lord, she had a strong arm. "You both should be ashamed!" she cried. "Running away and scaring us all!"

Al took his punishment with more grace than I did, looking contrite while I closed off, turning on my military training that Archer had drilled into me. I stood at attention.

"I had to go get Brother," Al said. "I'm sorry, but I had to. It wasn't right without him, you know that, Mom."

Mom looked at him with her hands on her hips, then pulled him into another hug. "Don't you ever disappear like that on us again," she said in a voice just above a whisper.

He returned the hug. "I'm sorry, Mom."

I was watching this out of the corner of my eye, and almost missed it when Mustang stepped out onto the patio with Riza just behind him. "I ought to set you both on fire," he snapped.

"Yes sir," I said flatly.

He scowled. "Drop the military act, Edward. We're family here, and that's _your_ doing."

Mom stepped over in front of me, putting a hand gently on the cheek she'd slapped. "Oh, Edward, please don't revert to that. Not with us." She hugged me tightly. "I missed my son. Please be my son and not Fullmetal."

I relaxed a moment, then dropped my suitcase and held her tightly, breathing in the scent of her, like fresh bread that she'd probably just pulled from the oven, like daisies which were her favorite flower, she probably had a fresh bouquet inside somewhere. Just like I remembered from that last night I'd seen her, when I sent her off with Teacher and Mister Curtis.

"I'm sorry, Mom," I choked. "I wanted you two to live out from under my reputation. I'm sorry."

She shook her head, looking up at me. "You're Amestris's hero, Edward."

"Al told me about what's been going on," I said. Then I looked up at Roy. "I hope you don't expect me to call you 'Dad' or anything. You were 'the Colonel' too long for that."

He smirked. "It's General now, and I outrank you again."

I shook my head. "I'm retired from the military," I said. "I'm a freelancer now."

"So I hear. Your father wasn't terribly specific when he tattled on you, but specific enough that Alphonse managed to find you. What _were_ you doing down there?"

"Killing off kiddie porn rings," I said. "Big business in Haloa. I made it a non-business."

"Kiddie porn rings?" Riza asked, voice quiet.

I nodded. "People pimping out underage kids. Most I found specialized in kids under thirteen."

All three adults looked horrified. Mom was the first to say something. "Who does that sort of thing?!"

I shrugged. "A lot of people. It was a very big business in Haloa. I shut down about twenty rings all together, some specialized in older merchandise, but all of them were kids. That's how Al found me, the stupid shit got himself caught by a thirteen and up group."

Al frowned, looking down at the ground and toeing it."Nothing happened to me, Brother got there first. I wasn't merchandise as much as bait for Brother."

Mom smacked him upside the head again. "That's for doing something so stupid."

Mustang pinched the bridge of his nose. "All right, Trisha, I think they've been smacked enough. Let's be glad they're home."

Mom gathered us into her arms again, holding tight. "Don't you boys ever scare me like that again. I need you. I'm made to be your mother, how can I do that when you run away?"

I awkwardly returned the hug. "Mom, it's okay now. Come on, let's go in."

She let go and smiled. "Yes, I have some apple cobbler to make. I just baked some bread, I used your favorite recipe, and there's some chicken with dumplings cooking for dinner tonight, I can make more for you."

"Don't make too much more," I told her, grabbing my suitcase and following her and the other two adults into the house, with Al in tow behind me. "I'm used to smaller meals."

"What about your automail?" she asked, looking back at me.

I took off my right glove, showing her my flesh hand. She lit up. "Oh, you got everything back! Good, that should make things easier for you."

"It has its ups and downs," I said as I shrugged out of my coat and put it over the back of a chair in the dining room where I settled myself.

Mustang leaned against a chair. "Edward, go settle in. Hang up your coat, take a shower, settle into yours and Al's room, since I doubt your brother is going to let you sleep anywhere else for awhile."

I glanced at Al, who gave me his big cow eyed look that usually won our fights when we were younger. I sighed, rolling my eyes. "All right, all right." I stood up, grabbed my coat, and hung it up on the coat rack by the door.

Al grabbed my arm and practically dragged me up the stairs to our room. I gave a hasty 'later' to Mustang and Riza as we passed. Al led me to a room with a double bed. A couple photos were displayed on the dresser, a picture of Al, Mom and I that he had to have stolen from the Rockbells and one of his new family, Mustang, Riza and Mom and him. I set my suitcase down by the dresser and looked at the picture.

Al came up behind me and put his arms around me. "The only one missing was you. But we can get a new picture now, Mister Hughes is always happy to provide a camera."

I rolled my eyes and glanced back at Al. "iThat/i part I remember. I was always getting bombarded with pictures of Elysia."

Al laughed. "He still does that."

I frowned. "If he's not careful, he's going to get her kidnapped by a ring."

"Brother, that kind of thing isn't as prevalent here in Central," Al said gently. "You need to start thinking about being _here_, not back there."

"It still happens, Al." I shook my head. "Never mind, why don't you go help Mom with diner while I shower? I don't need your help for that."

He stuck out his tongue. "I wouldn't wanna help you with that anyway," he said, then gave me one of his smiles that I'd missed so much, and headed out.

I smiled faintly, then looked back at the picture of my new family. I didn't quite get how it'd happened. I guess it kinda was my fault, asking Mustang to look after my mom and brother, but I figured Mom and Al would live in their own place and Mustang would just pop by sometimes, not that he would take them into his home with Riza.

That was my fault. I did that. Something good came of all of it, after all. I smiled, rubbing hard at my eyes that had started to get wet. I focused on cleaning up, pulling out my clean clothes which matched what I was wearing anyway, and, after finding the damn thing, walked into the bathroom and took a shower. God, it felt good to take a real shower. I hadn't had one since I left Mom's house over a year ago. I'd been keeping clean enough, but nothing beats a real scrub down in a shower.

I probably stayed in there longer than I should've, but I had a lot of gunk in my hair to clean off, and I probably spent more time trying to wash off my tattoo as if I could than I should've by rights. I knew it wouldn't come off, it was a permanent part of me now.

I dressed and dumped my dirty clothes back in my suitcase to be washed later and walked barefoot down the stairs to the dining room. Al was working on something, probably homework, I realized. Schooling, like a normal boy. Good, he deserved that.

He looked up at me with a smile. "Hi, Brother."

I leaned over him, arms resting on the back of his chair, looking at his homework. "You forgot to carry the one," I said, then walked away, heading for the kitchen. I heard him call after me, then swear. I laughed. It sounded weird to me, I hadn't laughed in so long.

Mom leaned against the doorway in front of me, wiping her hands on a towel. "That's a good sound to hear," she said. "I have my boys back."

I looked at her, and looked down at my toes. "Sorry it took so long," I said quietly. I knew that this comfortable ease with which I'd moved back into their lives wouldn't last; I was happy to see them, of course, but I was still not used to having people really in my life. Just like with Mom before, I'd enjoy it, but get restless and go out and find trouble, and I couldn't afford to do that now, not with a family to protect.

But I'd do it anyway, and I knew it.

She stepped over to me and hugged me tight. "You look like you're feeling better now that you've showered," she noted, letting go and looking me over.

I shrugged. "I haven't had a real shower in over a year," I admitted.

She scrunched up her face. "Oh, yuck. Edward. When will you learn to take care of yourself?"

I gave her a lopsided grin. "Never," I said. "Besides, I bathed, I just haven't showered. I was living in an Ishbalan refugee camp outside of Haloa. So we didn't exactly have creature comforts."

"Well, you have plenty of creature comforts here. Now, why don't you go sit at the table with your brother, I have to finish dinner." She kissed my cheek and went back into the kitchen. I watched her go, then looked down at the floor. This all seemed so normal, like they were just waiting for me to come home and now that I had, things were exactly as they were supposed to be.

I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, I suppose.

I turned and headed back into the dining room, taking a seat next to Al. He smiled at me. "Thank you for helping, Brother. You always were better at math than I was."

I shrugged. "I've had more time to practice," I said.

The look he gave me was unreadable, some combination of a smile and a frown that made no sense and gave away none of his thoughts. "That wasn't your fault, you know," he said quietly.

I recoiled a bit, then sighed, dropping my gaze to the table. "You told us to stop, and I didn't listen."

"Brother? I wanted Mom back too," he said. "I may have been hesitant, wanted to ask our father for help, but I was there that night, too, and I put my hands on that circle, too. It was both of us there, it wasn't your fault that I was trapped in the Gate anymore than it was my fault that you were out here alone, going through all that pain by yourself."

"What I went through doesn't compare to being stuck in that thing," I snapped quietly.

He frowned. "Brother? I wasn't aware of what was going on most of the time. Dad hasn't told me everything that's happened out here, and neither has Mom, but I don't think she knows. But there were times I was aware of you, and I knew how much pain you were in. It wasn't easy for you. In fact, it was probably harder for you than for me."

"What happened doesn't matter," I said a bit testily, not wanting my brother to find out what had happened to me. He didn't need the worry, and I was, quite frankly, ashamed that it had happened at all. I wanted it behind me. Archer was likely dead, if not, then he probably wished he were.

Al gave me a steady look. "Someone did to you what people did to those kids in Haloa, didn't they?"

I hated how he could read my mind. I turned away. "Not quite what you're thinking, Al," I said. "It was my own fault anyway."

"Rape is never the victim's fault," Al said seriously. "Nobody _asks _to be raped, no matter what else they're doing."

I turned red with shame. "Please don't call it that," I said hoarsely. "It's in the past and it doesn't matter. The guilty party is dead."

I heard Al set his pencil down before his hand grabbed my arm. "Brother, if it didn't matter, would you still be scared of the others you find?"

I frowned, looking back at him. "I am not-"

"You are," Al said, interrupting me. "I've heard about how the bodies are found. I dunno if it was the same in Haloa, but you left bodies that had been beaten as if you were fighting for _your_ life, not someone else's."

I clenched my jaw, staring just past him, biting off any smart mouth reply I might have. Maybe he was right, and even after killing Archer, I was just killing him again every time I encountered someone else like him or worse. Maybe he was wrong, though, and I was just that fucked up anyway. Besides, my kills in Haloa were different, they were more efficient, cold-blooded. "I told you, Al, the guilty party is dead. So it doesn't matter now."

He frowned. "And yet it matters enough still that you're willing to shoot _me_ to get to someone else."

"What?" Mustang chose wonderful times to enter into conversations. Riza followed behind him, keeping utterly quiet, and staying back by the wall. Mustang looked between us. "You shot your _brother_? Edward, have you lost your mind?"

I scowled. "All of you fuck off," I snarled. "I did it because it was the only way I could get him out of her grip without risking him _dying_. Shoot the hostage, they never prepare for that. I got Al in the shoulder, Murdoch in the heart, and I knew I could heal Al with my Stone."

"You have the Stone?" Al asked."Where? All you did was put your hand to my shoulder."

I sighed, then pushed up my sleeve, revealing my tattoo. "My Stone is here, Al."

Mustang narrowed his eyes. "You copied Scar."

"Had no choice," I protested to him, letting Al examine the array lines tattooed on my arm. "I needed a safe place to keep that Stone and I needed a weapon. I didn't have many bullets left, and even then, a bullet isn't as fast as alchemy, depending on the alchemy. And I didn't have my automail anymore. So this seemed like a logical solution."

Mustang sighed, running a tired hand over his face. "Only you would think this logical, Edward," he said in consternation. "All right, so you have your weapon. I hope you don't intend on using it here."

I shrugged, pulling my sleeve back down. "That depends on if the people of Central want to behave," I said. "If I find a porn ring, I'm busting it up and taking those kids to a shelter."

Mustang sighed, glancing over at Riza. She shrugged faintly and shook her head. Then he looked back at me. "All right, fair enough. Any of us would do the same. But Edward, we want you to feel safe enough here to not _need_ to go hunting like that, got me? Just focus on healing for awhile, you've seen enough blood, and you're not even eighteen yet."

"Close enough," I muttered.

"Edward?"

I sighed. "Yes, sir."

"You don't have to call me 'sir'," he said. "Roy is fine. Maybe someday 'Dad', like your brother. But not 'sir'. You're not in the military anymore, you're retired, and you're staying that way."

I frowned. "Then what iam/i I supposed to do around here?" I demanded a bit peevishly. "Just sit around and do nothing?"

"Well, you could help homeschool your little brother," Roy suggested. "He's still catching up to you."

I glanced at said little brother, who was giving me that cow eyed look again. "Al? Remember how well I taught you math when we were kids?"

He made a face. "I would think you have gotten better since then, Brother."

I shook my head. "I still suck as a teacher."

He pouted. "Well, Dad's a pretty good teacher, at least." He looked over at Roy.

Roy looked at me. "You know more about alchemy than I do," he pointed out.

"Mustang? Have you _heard_ me try to explain shit?"

He paused. "No, but I _have_ read your reports and I see what you mean. Sorry, Alphonse, it looks like I'm still your teacher."

Al nodded. "Yeah, if he's not any better, then Brother idoes/i suck as a teacher."

"Okay, okay, don't rub it in, you two." I rolled my eyes. I jumped as something sharp dug into my leg and stared down into the fuzzy black and white face of a small cat. I smiled and picked her up. "Hey, Fuzzball. Still have a stupid name?"

Roy frowned. "Her name is apt. It's Hayate that has a dumb name." Riza made a squawking sound of protest behind him. Roy looked back at her. "I love you dear, but you know nothing of naming animals."

"Hayate is a fine name for a dog," she argued.

"Roy? Your cat is named Fuzzball. You have no room to talk," I said.

He frowned. "Edward, remember what I told you about that uniform being pristine before she fuzzed it up? That name is perfect for her."

I looked down at her. "I am so sorry," I told her. "I did not mean to get you involved in my crazy family." She put a paw on my nose, then made a noise that sounded more like a chirp than a meow, and cuddled down against me.

"And now your shirt is forever fuzzy," Roy said.

"Good thing it's black," I said. "Won't show."

"Lucky bastard," Roy muttered. I shot him a smirk as I continued petting the cat. "Well, she's approved of you, that means you're part of the family now. Her claws are in you, you will never escape."

"Oh, my place here depended on her opinion of me and not on yours?" I asked, raising a sarcastic eyebrow. "Good to know she outranks you around here."

While Al laughed outright, I could see Riza smothering a laugh in the background behind Roy. Roy scowled. "_You_, I can ground," he said, pointing at Al. "Technically, I can ground you too." He pointed at me at that. "But since you've done nothing but state the truth." He sighed and glared at the cat in my arms, who was falling asleep.

I smirked. "She's the mistress of the house?"

He gave me a sour look. "You gave me a headache when you gave me her, Edward."

I scowled. "I gave her to _Riza_," I snapped. "_She_ gave her to you." Riza flinched in the background and I immediately regretted my tone. I hadn't meant to make it sound like she'd done wrong or anything, just... oh goddamnit. I sighed. "Well, whatever, it's fine. She's with Al, which is what I'd intended on in the first place."

Riza relaxed a little and Al looked at me blankly. "Me? You got her for me?"

"Of course I did," I told him. "I knew you wanted a cat pretty badly. I found a cat. I wanted her for you. I just wasn't in a position to care for her yet."

Al glanced towards the kitchen. "But what about Mom? She never let us have a cat before."

"I didn't know about Mom yet," I said, then frowned. "Besides, the reason she never let us have a cat was because the old bastard was allergic and she was convinced he was coming back."

"Be fair to the woman, Edward," Roy said. "You can't blame her for hoping."

"If she knew why he left, she wouldn't have bothered," I said. "I found him on the road, which is how he knew to tattle to you guys. He left to lure Dante and the others away from us."

"Maybe she didn't know?" Roy said. "And even if she did, she was a woman in love, don't fault her too much, Edward. You have her back, you have a cat, stop complaining."

I bit my tongue and tightened my jaw. "Yes, sir."

Al came to my rescue. "Neither of us liked the look on Mom's face when Father came up. We barely remembered him, and we didn't like that he was hurting her. It's just an old habit."

Roy sighed, then nodded. "All right, Alphonse." He looked at me. "Stop the military routine. We're family here."

"Yes, sir."

Roy sighed deeply.


	7. Down In The Underground

We went on like that for a couple weeks before I started getting too restless to sit still. I started going out late at night, after Al had fallen asleep. He was a deep sleeper, never noticed me getting up from our bed and getting dressed, and Mom retired to her room to knit instead of keeping lights going in the rest of the house.

I started seeking out the undergrounds that had cropped up in the ruined part of Central. Destruction like that attracted cockroaches of all sorts and there was a certain type I was after.

I wasn't surprise to see slums already set up in the ruined buildings that slid inward towards the ground below the city. The government would have a fun time clearing this out. I was watched with some apprehension; my clothes were clean, and that suggested better lodgings than this, which meant I was an outsider.

And outsiders weren't to be trusted.

I didn't find any evidence of child prostitution though, so I gave up on that area. Just poor people looking for shelter. No businesses set up. I'd have to go to the old parts of Central for that.

Al never caught on to my late night excursions, and if Mom did, she never let on. I kinda doubted she did, because of what happened a few months later.

I'd finally located a ring. Just a small one, my home city was happily clean from that sort of filth. I'd been cleaning house periodically over the years, and it had come to some good, apparently. It was a pathetic little ring, a back alley sort of operation where the girls, about a dozen in all, ranging from ages five to about sixteen, were kept in cages and there wasn't any privacy for the client and his pick, so every girl got to watch every rape that occurred there.

I wasn't exactly amused with them.

I aimed my firearm at the head of a man currently fucking one of the girls around thirteen, careful to not hit the girl as I fired. She shrieked as he started convulsing and then went still on her, bleeding out of the back of his head. I felt bad for the additional trauma she endured, but I wanted him out of the picture without waiting for him to finish up.

A couple pimps scrambled to the body, trying to pull the girl away from the man and get her back in her cage. She'd gone into shock, having to be half-dragged to her cage. I counted out how many men I could see from my vantage point. Just the two. With the condition of the place, I could imagine that was all there was, so I took the shots, downing them both.

I climbed down the fire escape from the top of the building I'd been sniping from and looked around, my firearm ready. Nobody but the girls. I finally holstered my weapon and looked at the girls. "Hey. It's okay. I'm here to help you."

The oldest-looking one gripped the bars of her cage tightly, watching me without fear. "Fullmetal?"

I smirked. "I'm known, I see." I went over to her cage and let her out. "Do me a favor," I said. "I'm going to free all of you. I want you to take the younger girls to the police station, all of you get there and let them get you to your homes."

She nodded, then threw herself at me and tried to kiss me. I grabbed her arms and pushed her back. "Don't do that to yourself," I said."You're too fucked up to be healthy enough to do that. Just get the kids to the police."

She scowled, then looked at the other girls like a mother about to herd a bunch of scared puppies around. "Come on, kids. Let's go."

I watched them start to follow her, then turned and headed back home. I wasn't feeling very attentive, or at least apparently I wasn't, because I had no idea at the time that I'd been followed.

I got home, and tiredly kicked off my boots. Then there was a tiny knock at the door. I whirled, pulling my sidearm and cracking the door open, braced against it in case someone tried to push their way in.

Nothing.

I frowned, opening the door wider to look out, only to suddenly have a small set of arms reaching up into my line of vision. I stared down at the little girl in front of me. She had a quiet, solemn look on her face and her arms were upstretched for me.

I reholstered my weapon, crouching down to look her in the eye. She wrapped her arms around my neck and clung tightly to me. I frowned. "What're you doing here?" I asked. "Didn't you go with the other girls?"

She pulled back and stared at me. "Made the bad men stop moving."

"Kid, you need to get back to your parents."

Her solemn look cracked with tears. "Stopped moving."

Which meant that somewhere between her home and the ring, her parents had been killed. I sighed, pulling the girl inside the house and shutting the door. It was cold out, and she was hardly dressed for that kind of weather. I wasn't going to have her freeze to death while I figured out what to do with her.

"Edward?"

I startled, staring over at my mother, who was wearing a shawl over her nightgown and carrying a mug of what smelled like tea. She looked to be on her way from the kitchen to her bedroom. I moved in front of the girl, hiding her. "Mom? What're you doing up?"

"I could ask you the same," she said, setting her mug down on the table. "Who is that?"

Damn. I supposed it was too much to hope that she hadn't seen the girl. I sighed. "I dunno." I looked at the girl. "She was in a porn ring I broke up tonight. She was supposed to follow the other girls to the police station, but she followed me, instead. She says her parents are dead."

Mom walked over beside me and gave me a sad look. "Oh, Edward, when are you going to feel safe enough to stop that work?" she said. Then she sighed and crouched down in front of the girl. The girl hid behind my leg. "Hello, sweetheart," Mom greeted gently. "What's your name?"

The girl pressed her face against the back of my leg, hiding herself from my mother. I frowned, turning carefully in her grip to turn to her. She looked up at me and held up her arms for me again. Sighing deeply, I bent down and picked her up. "Okay, kid, I'm holding you. Now what?" She pressed her face against my neck, holding onto my tightly like the tighter she held on, the more hidden away from the world she was. "Hey, come on," I said quietly. "It's okay. It's just my mom, she won't hurt you. Now why don't you tell us your name?"

"Hannah," she said in a whisper, and I only heard her because of her proximity to my ear.

I looked my mother. "She says her name is Hannah."

Mom nodded. "We need to get her cleaned up, fed and in bed," she said. "Maybe not in that order. Considering where you found her, I think she'd do better if you cleaned her with alchemy rather than trying to undress her for a bath."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Where's she going to sleep?"

"We'll keep her in my room," Mom said. "My bed's big enough. Although she may want you to stay instead of me."

I frowned. "Al will have kittens if he wakes up and I'm not there."

"Maybe you should think about that before you get up in the middle of the night and take off to the underworld," she retorted a bit tartly. I winced. I deserved that, but still.

I followed her to her room, carrying Hannah. We sat her down on Mom's bed and I touched my right index finger to her forehead, summoning alchemical energy from my arm and cleaning off the dirty and grime from her clothes and body. She'd do better with a bath, but it'd work for now. She blinked, looking at herself, then at me in awe. I grinned. "My magic trick," I told her. "But tomorrow, we're giving you a proper bath, okay?"

She didn't look happy, but she nodded. "Okay."

I started to take off her shoes and she started crying, pulling her feet away from me. "No, no, sweetheart, shh, it's okay," I told her, grabbing her arms gently. "I'm just taking off your shoes so you can sleep, I'm not going to hurt you." She looked at me tearfully, breathing heavily and sniffling. I shushed her again. "I'm just taking your shoes off, that's all."

She very reluctantly put her feet where I could get to her shoes. I took them off, setting them aside, then helped her lay down and tucked her in. "Now, you go to sleep," I said. "I'll see you in the morning."

She held her arms out for me again. I looked at my mother helplessly.

Mom sat knitting away in her seat. "I think she wants you to stay with her and keep away the boogie men, Edward," she said.

"Helpful, Mother," I grumbled. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Sleep in the bed with her," Mom said. "You and Alphonse used to crowd yourselves into my bed with me when you got scared, and she's looking to you to keep her safe right now. We'll figure out how to deal with her properly tomorrow, but tonight, she needs a good night's sleep."

I sighed, shrugged out of my coat and holster, setting them aside and crawled into bed over Hannah. She turned and clung to me before I was even fully laying down. "Hey, hey, lemme get settled first, yeah?" She let go as I settled in, making myself comfortable. "Okay, now you can make like a barnacle."

She blinked at me in confusion. "Barnacle?"

"You can cling to me," I explained. Which she happily did. I felt awkward, with a tiny body holding onto me, but I eventually fell asleep.

"Brother?!" Al's voice woke me several hours later. I jolted up, Hannah crying silently as she clung tighter to my shirt.

I shushed her, trying to remember where I was. Oh yeah, Mom's room. "Al, I'm in here," I called, yawning. I picked up Hannah as I sat up, sitting her on my lap where she settled in and clung tightly to me.

Al appeared in the doorway, wide eyed and panicked. "You weren't- where- where'd you g-" Then he cut himself off. "Who is that?"

"Her name's Hannah and she's my new headache," I grumbled, getting up off the bed, shifting Hannah onto one hip. "She followed me home last night."

"Where'd you go?" Al demanded as he followed me out. I could smell breakfast cooking, and I knew Hannah would probably be hungry. I knew I sure as hell was.

"I went out to break up a porn ring," I said "And before you ask, I've been going out for awhile now."

Al froze, staring at me in despair. "You could leave us at any time," he said quietly. "Nobody would know until you were gone."

I adjusted my grip on Hannah, who was eyeballing Al warily, so I could hold her with one arm and put my other arm around Al. "I promised I wouldn't leave you, Al," I said. "I meant that. Just because I'm still doing my work doesn't mean a thing. There's no work to be had here anyway, it took me a month to find this ring and it was dinky."

"Try not to sound disappointed, Brother."

I laughed. "I'm bored, Al. That's all. Come on, I smell Mom's sausages and pancakes, I'm hungry, and I got a kid to feed now." I looked at her. "What'm I supposed to do with you?"

She had that same solemn look on her face that she had last night, then put her arms around my neck and buried her face against me. I sighed. "Okay, okay, don't worry, I'm not getting rid of you."

Al watched this with open wonder. "She's really attached to you."

"I rescued her from a porn ring, Al," I told him. "Who knows how many times she's been raped. She's clinging to the only thing that's made it safe. She has no parents."

He frowned, taking my free hand. I wondered again if anything had happened to him between the time Murdoch 'purchased' him and the time I found him, but I decided not to ask. Not then. We were entering the dining room anyway, and Roy and Riza were both already there, respective pets at their feet and begging as Mom set out the food.

I smothered a snerk. Hayate was better behaved than Fuzzball by a long shot, waiting patiently while Fuzzball wove around Roy's feet, meowing her little fuzzy head off. Roy sighed. "Fuzzball, you'll get some, calm down before you fuzz yourself bald."

"How does that even make sense?" I asked as I took a seat, still holding Hannah.

Roy started to answer, then stopped, stared and opened his mouth. Before he could say anything I sighed and shook my head. "I saved her from a porn ring last night, she has no parents, and I'm not sure what to do with her except keep her at this point, because she doesn't want anyone else to touch her."

Roy was quiet a second, looking at me. "Edward? You find all the fun."

I gave him a sour look. "I do not. This is not fun. I have a kid I don't know how to handle."

"Welcome to my world when you introduced yourself to it," he said. "And then again when you left your brother in my care. Suffer with me."

"Fuck you, Dad."

He looked at Riza. "Did you hear that? He called me 'Dad'. My life can now officially be called hell. Someone go tell Hughes."

Riza smiled faintly behind her tea mug. "Yes, sir. I'll leave you to call and brag. You can start taking pictures for the album."

"I'll never keep up with that miscreant and his camera, so I think I'll pass," Roy said. Then he looked at me, sipping his coffee. "So what's her name?"

"Hannah. I got that much out of her," I said, looking at the girl on my lap. She shyly looked out Roy and Riza, then up at me. "That's my adopted dad and his wife," I said. "And that other guy you met was my brother. Don't worry, they're all my family, they won't hurt you."

Hannah sat up a bit straighter, eyeing the food as Mom took her place. Mom smiled at Hannah. "Are you hungry, dear?" she asked. Hannah looked at her, then nodded. "All right, would you like some sausage? I think pancakes may be a bit too heavy for you right now. How about some scrambled eggs?"

Hannah looked panicked, looked at me quickly, clearly asking permission for something. I sighed. "Yes, Hannah, you can have food. Mom, can you dish her a plate?"

"Of course," Mom said, dishing up a small plate while I helped myself to a larger portion. "You realize, Edward, you may have to help her eat."

I paused, setting my plate down slowly. "She's gotta be old enough to feed herself," I said, looking at Hannah. She looked at me shyly.

"She also seems to be regressed due to her trauma," Mom pointed out. "Indulge her a little right now, dear."

I made a point of not grumbling too much, trying to not make Hannah feel bad. I fed her between wolfing down my own food. She'd take a small bite of sausage off the fork, then turn her face against me to chew before emerging again to get more food. It was kinda cute, actually. In a really pathetic sort of way.

I alternated between stuffing my own face and helping her eat, until she finally stopped turning her face out for food. I held a bite of sausage on the fork for her. "What, are you done?" She looked up at me and nodded, then pressed her face against my chest. I set her fork down on her plate and sighed, adjusting my grip on her. "Hannah, you can't cling to me like this all the time, you know."

Her answer was to tighten her grip on me and start weeping. I looked at my mother helplessly. She looked equally helpless. "Just think about how you'd want to be treated, Edward," she suggested.

"That's no good," I said. "I would want to be left alone."

"Not at that age, you wouldn't have," she said. "You would've been glued to my side."

"Yeah, but you know how to handle a distraught kid," I said. "I don't."

"Just do what I'd do, you know me well enough, Edward," Mom reasoned with me.

Her reason warred heavily with my panic. I was finding myself in charge of a wounded child and I didn't know what to do about it. It was obvious she'd adopted me, and without any parents to give her back to, I knew my family, we'd end up adopting her, or more accurately, iI'd/i end up adopting her and I wasn't anywhere inear/i ready for that.

Well, to be perfectly accurate, we'd foster her until family could be found, and if none came forward after a year, then I'd adopt her, and I'd be old enough to do it myself at that time. But I had an uncomfortable feeling that no family would come forward. That was sorta how my luck ran.

I managed to convince Hannah to let Mom give her a bath, while I cleaned her clothes with alchemy. She came out of that ordeal crying and running to me after she was dried and dressed. I picked her up and carried her around with me to calm her down. She slept happily on my lap while I read, tucked in against my side. She spent the entire day there, actually, except when I was forced to leave her behind, which she didn't like much. But god almighty, sometimes a man's gotta piss in privacy without a little girl trying to attach herself to him.

Seriously, that girl was a growth on my side. We tried to make her sleep with Mom in Mom's room, and she'd just get up in the middle of the night and come crawl into bed with Al and I and plant herself in between us. Al finally complained about the bed being too small for that, so I brought in some stuffing and wood and transmuted the bed into a bigger one. I didn't have much choice, I wasn't kicking Al out of our bed for her, and nothing in the world was keeping her from our bed, so it was that or be too crowded.

She didn't talk much. She usually just had a hand on my coat or pants leg, following me around like a shadow, staying silent. When I'd stop and sit, she'd crawl up on my lap and tuck herself against me and nap. When it looked like she was having a nightmare, I'd set aside my book and hold her, rubbing her arm and shushing her. She'd usually settle down after that.

It was a month before she said anything, and she gave me a heart attack when she did. She was curled up on my lap while I read, which was our usual routine, since I couldn't go out with her attached to me. She looked up at me and stared. I noticed after a moment and pulled the book away, looking at her, feeling a bit unnerved by how intense that stare was.

"Daddy, do you not like me being here?"

Way to give a guy a heart attack, kid.

Once I firmly unlodged my brain from the back of my skull, I stared at her and managed an intelligent-sounding "what?"

"You don't want me here." She looked so dejected and broken-hearted at the idea that even I wanted to cry. It was pitiful.

I sighed and put the book aside, holding her tightly. "No, that's not it, Hannah," I said. "That's not it at all."

"Then why don't you like me?" she asked, tearing up.

I wiped away a couple tears that had escaped. "I do like you. I just don't know what to do with you. I'm not very good with kids. I'm screwed up, Hannah. Like you. I don't know what to do to help you. I don't wanna screw you up even more."

She looked up at me. "You were in a bad place too?"

I frowned. "Not quite the same, but yes, I was in a bad place. I got screwed up. And I'm not very good with people as a result."

She laid her head against my chest. "You do okay with me," she assured me. "I like you, Daddy."

There was that heart attack again. I decided, for the moment, to ignore her calling me that. "I like you too, Hannah. I just don't want to hurt you more."'

"Please let me stay then?"

I sighed. "Hannah, if your family comes looking for you, I have to give you back to them."

"Don't have any."

"Well, we'll see," I said. "If no one comes forward, then yes, we're keeping you."

She smiled. "Okay." She settled back down in her spot and curled up, closing her eyes with a smile on her face. I shook my head and went back to my book.


	8. These Endless Skies

Teacher visited us a month later, and I made sure I was carrying Hannah when I went to greet her. "You wouldn't hit a guy holding a kid, would you?"

Her angry look- which I fully deserved- faded at the sight of Hannah. "Did you adopt?"

"More like she adopted me, but yeah, I guess," I said.

She sighed. "Well, I guess I won't hit you yet, then."

Hannah scowled. "Don't hit my daddy, bad lady," she snapped.

I nearly had an aneurysm. Teacher thought it was enormously funny. "Hannah, don't call my teacher that," I said. "And she teaches me through fighting. She doesn't hurt me." Much. I wasn't voicing that part aloud, though.

She gave Teacher a venomous scowl, then pressed her face against my shoulder again. I sighed. "Teacher, this is Hannah. Hannah, this is my teacher, and she doesn't hurt me, so stop sulking at her."

Teacher held out her hand. "Hello, Hannah. I'm Izumi Curtis."

Hannah eyed Teacher's hand, then took it with that solemn look of hers. "Hannah Elric. Don't hurt my daddy."

I sighed deeply. "Hannah, stop that."

"She's as protective as an Elric," Teacher said, letting go of Hannah's hand.

"Yeah, she's not usually this mouthy," I said, giving her a stern look. "Why don't you go help your grandmother in the kitchen." I more told her than asked. I set her down. She gave me a deeply wounded look, then wandered off to the kitchen. "And of course, Mom had happy, fluffy kittens the first time Hannah called her 'grandma'."

Teacher laughed. "I'll bet." Then she smacked me upside the head. "You foolish boy."

I winced. "I know. I didn't know any other way."

"Let us help you," she said, giving me an angry look. "You never trust anyone."

"That's not true," I said a bit mopishly. "It wasn't that I didn't trust you guys, it was that I didn't want you hurt. So I took care of it myself."

"And then left."

"What, and stay behind and have you beat my ass into the grass?" I said with a wry grin.

"I may do that anyway," she said.

"The danger of coming back." I shook my head. "I felt I had no choice. Thank you for keeping Mom safe."

"And teaching your brother how to find you," she said. "I hesitate to ask how he did it."

"You're going to kill him."

"Why not? I'm already going to kill you."

I grumpily answered, "he had the head honcho of the child porn rings down there kidnap him and take him down to me. I had to shoot him to get him free."

She stared at me, then slowly ran a hand over her face. "I didn't teach you boys to be idiots."

"We're male, it's in our chromosomes to be stupid," I said. "You females are too practical."

"Someone has to be," she said. I motioned for her to take a seat, finally remembering my manners. "So, what were you doing in Aerugo?"

"Breaking up kiddie porn rings," I said. "Basically, killing bad guys. Which is how I ended up with Hannah. I found a small time ring here in Central and she followed me home instead of going to the police station with the other girls."

"Disgustingly noble work," she said, settling into a recliner.

"Thank you. I thought it was just disgusting." I propped myself on the arm of her chair. "It was disgusting how popular the rings were. I couldn't believe how many clients these people had."

She patted my leg. "And you did some good by getting rid of them."

"I hope so. I had a guy set up shelters so these kids don't just go right back into the system, but I dunno how long it'll last." I sighed. "Knowing how my luck goes, it'll fall apart now that I'm gone."

Teacher looked up at me. "I know you want to save the world, Ed, but you can't. Worry about what you can do here at home. Worry about that little girl that thinks the world of you. Worry about your brother that does the same, or your mother. Don't worry about what you can't fix."

I gave her a wry look. "I think it's my job to worry about everything," I told her, then laughed. "Hell, you're right, though. I'm a dumbass."

"I never said that," she said. "I said you're trying to be hero to too many people."

"Aren't they the same thing?"

"Hardly," she said. "One's noble, the other's just stupid." She smiled at me. "And I'm quite sure your mother didn't raise anyone stupid. And I sure didn't train anyone that way."

I rested my head against hers. "You're right," I said. "I just keep seeing my mistakes and thinking if I just save enough people, maybe that'll make up for them."

She reached up and patted my head. "Edward, your mistakes are not so big as you think."

"Central."

"Saved the country from Dante and her homunculii."

"Fat lotta good that did," I grumbled. "It put Roy in charge of the country."

Teacher laughed. "He's still better than Dante and Bradley."

"He'd better be, or I'm kicking his ass," I said.

Teacher gave us both the ass kicking she promised us while she was there, although I made her work for it out of pure habit. I think that actually ended in a draw. I made Hannah stay inside with Mom for the duration of it; she'd become fond of Al, too and boy did he get his ass kicked. I didn't want Hannah to see that and sour on Teacher.

Teacher's husband left to return to the shop, but Teacher hung around a bit longer.

"You have a beautiful family, Edward," she said one evening as we were gathered in the den. Roy was listening to a radio drama and reading the newspaper, Riza had a new romance paperback, Mom was knitting a blanket for Hannah, and Al was teaching Hannah how to read. I was sitting back by Teacher, doting on her a bit since she'd had an attack earlier that day.

I looked over the group that had adopted me. "Yeah, I guess I do." I looked at her. "You're part of that, you know."

She smiled, reached up and patted my shoulder. "You're a dear boy, even when I want to throttle you."

"That's my special talent," I said with a grin. Then I looked back at my family. They weren't a bad bunch. A little broken in parts, but a pretty good little group.

It'd taken me seven years to get out of that lab back in Rizenbul. But I was finally free.

Free.


End file.
